Breaking the Threshold

5 miles - South to TP (probably should mix up the running route soon. May go a little wild and try going North on Friday)

For some reason, hitting five miles is a threshold distance for me. Maybe its because it was the shortest distance I'd run in college that wasn't a pre-race run. I mean, I could totally go for a 5 mile run and have that be it for the day and still feel legit (note the difference between me and some of my more mileage oriented college friends who would consider 5 mi to be no more than a warm up :-P) So stopping the watch at a little over 40 mins today felt like I had just pulled myself over the first major ledge on my climb up the recovery mountain. The knee is feeling ok. It's a little bit sore but mostly to the touch and I'm going to go with the intense massage session on the area by the PT yesterday as being most of the cause. I'd really like to get out again tomorrow and rock another 5 miler, but as my new years resolution is the be SMART about recovery, i am sticking with my current plan of two days on one day off.

I think there are two camps of runners. There are the people who race because they run, and there are the people who run because they race. I'm the former. I like racing, but it's purely an offshoot from enjoying getting out and running and training. Some people need a race in order to motivate them to run. I bring this up only because I was talking about getting out for a run and the first question one of my co-workers asked was "Are you training for a marathon." And to be honest I guess the answer is yes. I'm planning on running my first Marathon at the end of May, but it's not really my motivation. Even when I bust out some 16mi + runs, it will be for the love of the sport, and not just cause I have to "train."

But, I am going to develop some more substantial racing plans soon. I've got some ideas involving a progression from 5K to 10K to half marathon to the full marathon at the end of May. Then I need to decide if I'm going to continue the focus on the running or to begin my next goal of training for my first triathalon, whenever or wherever that might be. I think I've been a little afraid to set goals recently, for fear that it would be even more disheartening if the inflammation in my knee flared up again. But I think it's time for a little positive thinking, so I may engage in little goal planning for 2009.

There's a lot to think about, but for now I am going to stay smart and healthy.